Annie Cohen-Solal, Distinguished Professor at Bocconi University in Milan (Department of Social and Political Sciences), received a Ph.D. from the Sorbonne, where she developed a joint interest in history and sociology. Her academic career led to appointments at prestigious universities from Berlin to Jerusalem, New York, and Paris.
As a writer, she gained international recognition in 1985 with Sartre (1905-1980), which was translated in fifteen languages and hailed as « monumental » by Le Monde Diplomatique. From 1989 to 1993, she served as Cultural Counselor to the French Embassy in the United States, an experience which prompted her to explore the theme of art and immigration through numerous conferences, articles and exhibitions.
Among her books in English are Painting American: The Rise of American Artists, Paris 1867-New York 1948 (prix Bernier de l’Académie des beaux arts, 2000), Leo & His Circle: The Life of Leo Castelli (Prix ArtCurial 2010), New York Mid-Century (with Paul Goldberger and Robert Gottlieb, 2013), Mark Rothko: Towards the Light in the Chapel (2015). As a curator, she produced Magiciens de la terre: Retour sur une exposition légendaire (Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2014 with Jean-Hubert Martin); Picasso the Foreigner (National Immigration Museum and Picasso national Museum Paris, 2021-2022), which won the Historia Award of best 2022 exhibition.
Her last essay Picasso the Foreigner (Prix Femina Essai, Fayard, 2021) will be published by both Farrar Straus & Giroux (USA and the anglophone world) and Paidós (Spain and the Spanish world) in March 2023.
Born in Algiers, Cohen-Solal lives between Paris and Milan.
